DoP reconstitutes NMDPC

The Department of Pharmaceuticals (DoP) has reconstituted the National Medical Devices Promotion Council (NMDPC), with the Secretary of the Department as the head of the Council. The reconstitution comes after the Department for Promotion of Industry & Internal Trade (DPIIT) under the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, which was heading the Council from its inception, decided to hand over the onus.

An office memorandum issued by the DoP said that since the DoP has the mandate for the promotion of the medical devices industry and has created dedicated institutional mechanisms such as standing forum of medical device associations, the DPIIT has communicated its concurrence through office memorandum dated June 16, 2022, to reconstitute the NMDPC under the chairpersonship of the Secretary, DoP with appropriate representation from DPIIT.

Accordingly, the Council has been reconstituted with the Secretary of DoP as the chairperson, chairman of National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (NPPA), joint secretary DoP (in charge of NIPER division) and Advisor for Health, NITI Aayog, as the ex-officio members.

Another eight ex-officio members would be one representative each, not below the rank of joint secretary or equivalent, from the Department of Health and Family Welfare, Department of Health Research, Department of Commerce, DPIIT, Drug Controller General (India) (DCGI), Secretary Indian Pharmacopoeia Commission, Executive Director of Engineering Export Promotion Council of India (EEPC), and Kalam Institute of Health Technology, Andhra Pradesh.

The representatives from the medical devices industry associations including Association of Indian Medical Device Industry (AiMeD), Association of Diagnostics Manufacturers of India (ADMI), Medical Technology Association of India (MTAI), Medical Devices wings of Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI), the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), Advanced Medical Technology Association (ADVAMED) etc., would be nominated as members by the DoP.

Joint Secretary, DoP, who is in charge of the medical devices division will be the convener of the council. Besides, the joint secretary or equivalent from the departments of the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate change, Department for BioTechnology, Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises, animal husbandary and dairying, consumer affairs, Telecommunications revenue, etc. Representatives from Atomic Energy Regulatory Board (AERB) Bureau of Indian Standard, CEOs of National Accreditation Board for Testing and Calibration Laboratories (NABL), National Accreditation Board for Certification Bodies (NABCB), Government E Marketplace (GeM), and Quality Control India and technical experts in the field of medical devices, are co-opted as and when required to deliberate on specific issues.

Further, additional chief secretary or principal secretary of the industry department of the four States, which are Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh and Tail Nadu where the Government is supporting the creation of common infrastructure facilities under the scheme for promotion of medical devices parks will be invited in the meeting of NMDPC as may be needed, to bring the relevant issues for deliberations.

The setting up of the Council was first announced by the then Union Minister of Commerce and Industry Suresh Prabhu on December 14, 2018 and the DPIIT has later issued an order in March 3, 2020, establishing the Council. According to the initial decision, the council was headed by the Secretary of DPIIT, along with members from the concerned departments of the Government of India and also representatives from the healthcare and medical devices industry and quality control institutions.

The Council will try to meet once in three months and have not less than three meetings in a year. Besides, it may convene as and when a substantial issue is to be discussed. The Council will brief the issues deliberated in its meetings with the minster for chemicals and fertilisers on a regular basis to take further guidance.

The NMDPC will have the objective to act as a facilitating and development body for the Indian medical technology industry, to achieve the objectives envisaged under the proposed National Medical Devices Policy, 2022, towards the goal of attaining Universal Health Coverage.

The other objectives include to build synergies in the efforts of various departments in view of the diversity and multi-disciplinary nature of the sector to harness the potential of the Indian MedTech sector; to hold seminars, workshops and related networking activities to garner the views of the industry; to further strengthen the institutional mechanisms established by the Department such as Standing Forum of Medical Device Association and Regulatory Roundtable meetings to deliberate on the issues put forth by the industry for resolution; to support dissemination and documentation of international norms and standards for medical devices by capturing the best practices in the global market and facilitate domestic manufacturers to rise to international level of regulatory and on-regulatory needs of the industry.

It will also deliberate on various issues related to public procurement of medical devices under the Public Procurement Order (Make in India) Policy of DPIIT with the goal to encourage investment and domestic manufacturing in all categories of medical devices. Pharmabiz